Is the B-wing cockpit actually supposed to be gyroscopic? (That would be very odd for a space fighter.) Or was is simply supposed to rotate from a horizontal position (for ease of boarding when landed) to a vertical position when flying (because maybe it is easier to steer your craft, and aim weapons, when you are aligned with with the ship's vertical centerline)? Do we ever see the cockpit moving during spaceflight? I honestly don't know.

Mister Ed wrote:Is the B-wing cockpit actually supposed to be gyroscopic? (That would be very odd for a space fighter.) Or was is simply supposed to rotate from a horizontal position (for ease of boarding when landed) to a vertical position when flying (because maybe it is easier to steer your craft, and aim weapons, when you are aligned with with the ship's vertical centerline)? Do we ever see the cockpit moving during spaceflight? I honestly don't know.

Yup, full 360 rotation during flight. It's not in any games probably because it'd be too complicated to introduce another axis for a single unmodified flightstick or controller, or because it'd be too difficult to implement just for one lesser-known ship. We don't ever see it in universe because it turned out that the gyro systems were very prone to failure and most pilots just locked the system in one position during flight.

Mister Ed wrote:Is the B-wing cockpit actually supposed to be gyroscopic? (That would be very odd for a space fighter.) Or was is simply supposed to rotate from a horizontal position (for ease of boarding when landed) to a vertical position when flying (because maybe it is easier to steer your craft, and aim weapons, when you are aligned with with the ship's vertical centerline)? Do we ever see the cockpit moving during spaceflight? I honestly don't know.

Yup, full 360 rotation during flight. It's not in any games probably because it'd be too complicated to introduce another axis for a single unmodified flightstick or controller, or because it'd be too difficult to implement just for one lesser-known ship. We don't ever see it in universe because it turned out that the gyro systems were very prone to failure and most pilots just locked the system in one position during flight.

Wait, if we never see it (in games OR movies), how do we know that's how it works?

Not a peep, which somewhat surprised me. I expected one of these sets to make a "surprise" appearance at the NY Toy Fair (either the B-wing, R2, or Palpatine's Arrest). That may indicate that none of these sets will be available through traditional retail channels, but that doesn't quite jive with past toy fairs. I guess there's always San Diego.

Last year the Super Star Destroyer made its "debut" at Brickworld Chicago over the summer. I expect the same for at least one of these. They need to hold things back for other events over the year. I'd expect to see these officially announced later in the year.

I'm really curious to compare it with my Artoo-Detoo LEGO Cuusoo project. I admit I was a bit crestfallen when I learned that LEGO had plans for their own large scale Astromech, but I think there's room for another Astromech model in the LEGO collection - they appear in the movies and TV shows in all sorts of color combinations. Mine's only built with around 900 pieces, and that includes the base.